Bumpy Road to the Oscars Could End in Netflix Triumph

Netflix has spent lavishly on its Oscar campaign for "Roma," which is tied with "The Favourite" for a leading 10 nominations

Published February 22, 2019•Updated on February 22, 2019 at 4:24 pm

Sunday's Academy Awards might be historic: Netflix could be in line for its first best-picture win.

The race to Sunday's 91st Academy Awards remains unpredictable, but odds makers peg Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" as the film most likely to triumph in the night's top award. That would hand the much-debated, increasingly dominant steaming service the most prestigious honor in a movie business it has thoroughly disrupted.

Netflix has spent lavishly on its Oscar campaign for "Roma," which is tied with "The Favourite" for a leading 10 nominations. Netflix has previously won only one Oscar for a feature-length film. Some academy members, like Steven Spielberg, have called their releases "TV movies" since they largely bypass theaters.